


Blue Butterflies

by Telas_Selar



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Feels, Fluff, Gay Stephen Strange, Grumpy Stephen, IronDad and SpiderSon, IronStrange, M/M, Pansexual Tony Stark, Peter is literally their son change my mind, Stephen sees the future, Supreme husbands, Tony knows no one is straight, cardiac arrest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 06:45:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18733756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telas_Selar/pseuds/Telas_Selar
Summary: After barely surviving cardiac arrest aboard an orbiting satellite, Stephen Strange comes down from his visions a changed man, and Tony can’t figure out what caused the change. Meanwhile, Stephen realises just how precious a thing time can be. Nothing..and nobody..should ever be taken for granted.





	Blue Butterflies

 

 

"Do you ever think about sitting down?" Tony commented, his eyes glued to his phone screen. "Like, the opposite of walking around? It's relaxing, you know. Beats pacing like a madman on speed." 

Stephen turned on his heel, setting his jaw. 

"Well at least I do my job. Unlike you. All you ever do is sit around and complain. How's that going for you?" 

"Pretty well, actually. You should try it sometime. Refreshing." 

Stephen could almost feel the satisfaction in the other man's tone, and it annoyed him just as much as it aroused him, not that he'd ever admit it. Stark was a douchebag, end of story. 

"I'm going to crash. Try not to break anything."

"Like your not-so-perfect straight facade?" 

Tony yelled at Stephen's retreating back, satisfaction making his lips twitch slightly when Stephen faltered a little.

 _Honestly_ Stephen thought, as he held up his hand to the biometric scanner in area B-23, accessing the sleeping dock. _Stop being so gay around him, he's not an idiot. Sooner or later he's going to-_

"Hey Dr Dad!"

Stephen turned to see Peter, lying upside down on his bunk, reading some kind of book on advanced programming.

The sorcerer frowned slightly as he stepped into the dock and let the door seal itself behind him.

"You're studying?"

"Well yeah, I'm in space, which is really cool, but I've still got exams in a week so I can't really be slacking off...oh! I just had an idea, could you help me out? It's okay if you can't, it's just that I've just got to remember these terms for the first quarter-" 

"Of course." Stephen smiled slightly, taking the book offered to him. Although he was beyond tired out, letting Peter down wasn't something he ever planned on doing.

 

 

Hours passed by, and Tony's eyelids flickered slightly. He was half asleep, bordering on actual sleep, but far too tired to actually get up and lie down. He'd spent a fair amount of time fixing an old database from his phone before he'd started to drift. 

"Tony, it's me, do you copy? I know it's probably like endless night over there but-" 

Tony sat up in the co-pilot seat and leaned over the radio immediately upon hearing Steve's voice. 

"Rogers? Hey, no I copy. What's up?"

"Nothing, it's just...how're things going up there?" 

Tony could feel the relief in Steve's voice, though. 

"Fine, Strange is keeping up the I'm-completely-heterosexual act of his." 

"I meant the ship not your boyfriend" Steve grinned to himself, fiddling with the handle of his mug of cold coffee on the desk. 

"Okay, he is not my boyfriend!" Tony hissed at the radio, glancing around nervously for a moment. 

"Not yet anyway." 

"Shut up." 

"I'm starting to want you to make me." 

"See, no, that's kinky. I don't do that." 

"You couldn't be more obvious if you tried" Steve retorted, downing half of the coffee in a mouthful. 

"So what, are you gonna tease me or actually try and you know...be a good wingman?"

"Is that what I am, now?" 

"Oh Christ, fine, if you're not going to help me, put Bruce on the line." 

"So now you want to get rid of me. Nice." 

Steve smirked as he listened to Tony's stuttered protests, and decided to torture him with a few seconds of total silence before he finally cut in. 

"Okay, okay, I'll help you. First thing's first, maybe cut out the teasing?" 

Tony put on a mock-annoyed face, before remembering that Steve couldn't currently see him.

"I'm not teasing him."

"Right."

"Okay, maybe a little bit."

"Yeah, that..little bit. Cut it out. You're just making him insecure."

"Dude, okay, have you seen the wizard? Insecure probably isn't even in his dictionary!"

"Yeah, Tony, I've seen him. As in, I've seen the way he gets nervous around you and tries to cover it up with cold dominance. That's Bucky all over."

"Wait so you don't top?" 

"Tony-" 

"No, wait. I'm actually hearing that the mighty Steve Rogers, the Captain America is a bottom."

"That's it, I'm pressing the mute button."

"No wait, Rogers, I'm sorry-"

Steve chuckled sheepishly.

"No you're not."

"I am a bit. Sort of. Okay I'm not but listen, how do I get him to admit it?"

"You don't, you just have to...wait it out. Til he finally cracks. Or the sexual tension between you guys finally causes the ship to crash."

Tony huffed in annoyance. 

"Come on, it's not that bad." 

"Really? Nat and I have a bet on which one of you is gonna act on it first."

Tony rolled his eyes. 

"Bye, Rogers." 

"You're hanging up on me now?" 

"No I'm protecting my dignity." 

"What dignity?" 

Tony made a growling noise.

 

Stephen tossed and turned in his bunk, trying to get warm. All of a sudden, he felt as though the dock was freezing cold, despite the three blankets he was currently sprawled out under. Peter had fallen asleep some time ago, tired but satisfied he'd studied well enough to at least achieve an A. As the sorcerer shifted to try and curl up, he felt another shiver rack his body. Something was definitely not right but now was not the time to question it. He had a small while to go before his shift, and the last thing he wanted was to be caught slacking off by Tony after having complained about his colleague's own laziness. Muttering a curse very quietly so as not to wake Peter, Stephen sat up slowly, deciding to get a drink of water from the tap. Maybe that would help him sleep. The floor felt icy-cold as he stumbled across the dock, his knees threatening to give way. “Fuck” he whispered again, gripping the wall tightly but it was no use. 

On his way back from the control room, Tony heard the crash as Stephen's body collided with the floor, the scream that came from Peter's bunk, the beeping that filled the satellite as the sorcerer's pulse dulled to a flatline. 

“Stephen!” Tony yelled, all pretense vanishing in a heartbeat. He stumbled through the corridors, punching his data into the scanners almost without thought. The amount of fear that filled him was immense. There was no word to describe the screaming in his head, the way everything seemed to be in slow motion. “No no no come on…” Tony dropped to his knees, pulling Stephen to his chest, struggling to feel a pulse. There was nothing. His own heart dropped to the point of no return. 

“Mr Stark?” Peter whispered, trembling despite his best efforts. 

“Go” Tony choked out. “Radio earth. Don't do anything else. Come back here immediately afterward, got that?”

“Mr Stark is he…”

“Kid, please. I don't want to lose you too.” 

Peter took to his heels, fighting back a panic attack. He'd seen the look in Tony's eyes, a look that shouldn't be there. The look of a haunted man, someone who had looked death in the eye before and watched as it took everything from him. 

Peter felt chilled to the bone. 

 

Stephen's mind was full of white noise, and his limbs felt as though they didn't belong to him. The Eye was open, glowing, but he couldn't feel it, couldn't see it, couldn't comprehend anything beyond the grey he could see behind his eyes. What was happening to him? Was this death? 

_“Dr Strange. I've been expecting this for a long time.”_

_“Who are you?” Stephen asked, trying to move something, anything, but he couldn't. He couldn't move another muscle._

_“I'm the future. Or more accurately, I'm your future. One of fourteen million possibilities you've got coming your way. And this is the one that you have the misfortune to see first.”_

_“How is this happening? What did you do to me?”_

_The silence that came as an answer to his question made Stephen shiver as he blurted out what he really wanted to know._

_“Is Stark alright?”_

_“And there we were, thinking you didn't care about Stark.”_

_“Are you going to torture me or are you going to show me?” Stephen yelled. Why couldn't he move? He wondered desperately._

_“You'll find that they're both quite the same thing.”_

_The grey faded as a landscape took its place. A barren planet, one he thought he could recognize from the star maps. Titan. In the distance, he could make out himself lying still against a wall of stone, while a dark figure held Tony in his grasp._

_“Any last words before I end him, Strange?”_

_Stephen felt the horror seep through every corner of his mind as he tried to scream, to move, to do something, but his future self only stared blankly at Tony and his captor, paralysed where he lay._

_Tony glanced over at him with a look of acceptance, a bitter gleam in his eyes, as his captors fist closed tighter around his neck. The annihilation was loud, and the scream that escaped his colleague was painful, heart-wrenching._

_Stephen's eyes widened as he finally understood why he couldn't move. He was doomed only to watch as everything fell apart. And this was only the first._

 

Tony's fingers trembled as he ripped open Stephen's shirt and charged up the defibrillator, his own pulse extremely erratic. He'd found no injuries on his colleague, and no signs of an overdose or any other type of suicide attempt, so reason told him this was a heart attack. And this was the only way he knew…. 

“Come on” he practically screamed between gritted teeth, as he increased the voltage. “Come ON!” Tony couldn't stop the tears from blurring his vision as they fell, but he wasn't going to stop trying now. Not now. 

He tore his eyes away from the still form under him and spoke only one word to the A.I. 

“Pulse.”

“No pulse” FRIDAY replied. 

Tony grit his teeth harder and upped the voltage once more. He was going to do anything, no matter what it took, because Stephen was not going to die here. 

“Pulse” he choked out. 

“No pulse.”

“DAMMIT STRANGE, COME ON!” Tony yelled, tightening his grip on the machine. He was not going to give up. He upped the voltage yet again. 

“Pulse”he shouted, feeling his voice break. His arms were getting tired, and the adrenaline was slowly wearing off. 

“Pulse detected” FRIDAY finally responded. 

Tony doubled over, choking on thin air. 

“How many beats?” He managed weakly. 

“25 and counting, sir. You need to transfer him to the med bay until he becomes stable.”

“Fine. Look after Peter.” Tony shakily pulled Stephen into his arms for a moment before pressing the exit panel and carrying him out of the dock. 

“Tony?” Stephen mumbled, stirring slightly with the movement. 

Tony paused inches from the scanner, looking down at the man in his arms, who seemed disorientated, but otherwise perfectly fine. He couldn't help it, he held him tighter and buried his head in Stephen's shoulder, breaking down before he could stop himself. He fully expected his colleague to make a sarcastic comment, pull away, tell him to stop being dramatic. What he didn't expect was a gentle hand at the back of his neck, holding him closer, a soft kiss pressed to his temple. He definitely didn't expect to suddenly find himself shaking, trembling, crying while Stephen held him, rubbing his back, taking control of the situation in the simplest way he could he think of. 

“I thought you were gone” Tony choked out. 

“You won't get rid of me that easily” Stephen whispered to him, accessing the scanner with his free hand. 

The med bay was empty, even as the two of them stumbled through the sliding doors, their lips colliding even before Tony was conscious of the fact. 

“I thought you were straight” Tony muttered, but he was already wrapping his arms around Stephen's neck. 

“I…I…was an idiot’ Stephen told him, and something gleamed in his eyes, something Tony had never seen there before. Pain. And was that…relief? And was he crying?! 

“What happened to you?” Tony asked, pulling away slightly. 

“I had a….revelation” Stephen managed, looking determinedly away from his colleague's gaze. 

Tony bit his lip, glancing back down at Stephen's bare chest for a moment before he pulled him close again, kissing him passionately. Stephen kissed him back, sucking on his lip, one hand tangled in his hair. His hands seemed to be shaking more. 

Was he nervous? Tony wondered. Something was off. Stephen had just survived cardiac arrest, and here he was on the verge of tears, a desperate man who wanted to be with him, whatever the cost. What had he seen in those moments of ascension that had altered him so much? 

“Stephen, what did you see?” Tony asked firmly, but he fell silent when the sorcerer shook his head.

And their lips once again collided in a desperate, passionate kiss. 

Tony's eyes were wide, but he made no comment, melting into it. He wanted this just as much Stephen did after all. 

But Tony was unsettled. Deeply. 

Something was very..very wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
